30 Days to a Better You

Things I bought to swell my meager food storage:

2 cartons salt
3 extra spaghetti noodle boxes
3 lbs Beanland mix (it really is that good)

Yes, yes, baby steps all but the journey of a thousand miles, et cetera, et cetera...

All Hail the Dutch!

Deb keeps posting about wheat this, healthy that, her plants on water rations so I thought I would chime in as her not-so-healthy but really tasty nemesis - White Bread Girl! I have been playing with a Dutch Crunch recipe and think I have it now. I have a pic but it's stuck in my camera...sorry!

Dutch Crunch Bread

2 - 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
2 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup warm water (105 to 110F)
1 - 1/2 tsp salt
1 cup warm milk (105 to 110F)
2 - 1/2 to 3 - 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp sugar

Topping

1 tbsp active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (105 to 110F)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup white rice flour (Not sweet rice flour)

Bread: In a large bowl combine yeast, water, milk and sugar. Stir to dissolve and let sit for about 5 minutes until the yeast is absorbed. Add vegetable oil, salt, and about 2 cups of flour. Stir until well mixed. Add remaining flour a couple of tablespoons at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Turn out on to a lightly flour surface and knead for about 4 minutes, until smooth and elastic. Place in lightly greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap (don't stick it around the dough just cover the top). Let rise about 1 hour until double in size.

Once dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into either two medium sized loaves or into 10 to 12 rolls. Place on a lined baking sheet: cover & let rise for 15 minutes while you prepare the topping.

Combine all topping ingredients in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly. Let it stand until the rolls are done rising.

Spread a generous layer of topping on each roll (think of it as a spooned on icing) - don't worry if it runs on to the pan. Let rise for another 20 minutes.

Bake at 375' for 20 to 25 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes. To reheat place in foil in 375' oven for 10 minutes.

Round Foot Gardening

The day after tomorrow our family is going to start our "hunker in the bunker".


I planted some of my deck planters this morning. Just in case we need some extra oxygen in the bunker. Considering the fact that I have a "black thumb", if we actually get anything BUT oxygen (such as vegetables) it will be nothing short of a miracle. I planted one tomato plant, one green pepper, two peas, chives, parsley, and several flowers(that way it won't be SO depressing if the veggies don't grow). I also planted seeds for radishes and spinach.

I don't think we'll be harvesting any vegetables during May - a few herbs maybe - it will be unlikely that we'll get anything else. I will try and take very good care of my little deck garden. Whenever I am wishing for fresh produce, I'll go out and water....

...I hope they don't drown.

TVP Thursday

(I made this meal on Thursday)

The ingredients.

Vegetarian Black Beans and Rice.

Into one medium size pot add:
1 can black beans
1 can pureed black beans
2 bay leaves
a handful each of dried onions and dried peppers
about a cup of sausage TVP
about a cup of water - maybe a cup and a half

Bring to a boil and then simmer for a little while. Serve over rice.

The verdict:

Alex just kept going back for more. I liked it a lot. Steve liked it a lot. Nathan liked it. Danny wouldn't try it (try not to be too shocked - he did eat a lot of the Honey-Wheat Bushman's Bread). I usually make black beans and rice with regular sausage (Jimmy Dean), but found that I didn't miss the "real" sausage at all. This one's a winner.

This recipe for black beans and rice was made completely with food storage items.

$12.37

A week from tomorrow we'll be starting our month long, self imposed food storage odyssey.

I have $12.37 left from last week's grocery money...I need to spend it by tomorrow.

What groceries would you buy if you only had $12.37?

Hunker in the Bunker 2009

Several years ago we had some friends in our ward that spent an entire month only eating from their food storage. Yes, I thought they were nuts. Who would want to do something like that? Next month we will be that nutty family.

Starting on May 1st and continuing for the entire month our family will live off of our food/household storage. We discussed it last night at FHE. The boys were surprisingly receptive - although Danny did want to know if that meant we couldn't spend money on other stuff (computer, video games, etc...). After assuring him that we weren't going to include those things we made a menu for a month of meals. Well, we made a menu for most of a month of meals. I still need to fill in 2 or 3 days (Daniel's choice for those days was "mashed potatoes" - I need to add a main dish).

I plan to tape a piece of paper to the refrigerator that says "Things I WISH we had in our food storage!" We will perhaps use it to supplement our shopping list at the end of the month.

I don't plan to go shopping on April 30th and stock up on produce, milk, dry cereal, bread, etc...Nope. It will be a month of powdered milk (since I don't personally drink milk, this won't bother me much) and homemade bread. In fact, I don't think I will go grocery shopping at all next week - we'll just use up the milk and bread that we already have.

Wish us luck - you can contact us through short-wave radio, code phrase: "The Bunker"- later in the month we may change that to: "Tired of powdered milk - I want a Frosty!"

TVP Tacos

Textured Vegetable Protein = TVP= meat substitute

We recently ordered a variety of TVP products from Shelf Reliance - taco, sausage, beef, ham and chicken. Over the next few weeks I plan on trying them all. Today's choice: Taco. Right now a #10 can of Taco TVP is on sale for $10.44. A case of 6 is $59.53. Each can supposedly has 40 servings (10 cups dry TVP).

It was simple to make - pour 1 1/4 cup boiling water over 1 cup TVP - let sit for 10 minutes. That's all. That made enough taco "meat" for 9 tacos, and one taco salad. Fairly close to 1 lb. of hamburger. It also meant that dinner was ready in 10 minutes. It usually takes me 10 minutes to defrost my meat, then another 10 to 20 to cook and season it.

Verdict:

Not bad - the boys and Steve wolfed it right down.

• Did it taste like taco meat? Close enough.
• How was the texture? It was a little softer than ground beef - but not mushy.
• Will we use this again? Yes. While not quite the same as meat, it worked well in this application - and was a lot easier and less messy to prepare than ground beef.
• Overall I'm pleased to add this to our food storage.
  

I'm thinking of trying the sausage next week - working it into black beans and rice. We'll see.

Wheat bread Wednesday

After yesterday's fairly successful foray into making wheat bread I decided to give it another try today...I searched for wheat bread recipes on Google and found a winner. This. Bread. Is. Awesome.

I found it on cdkitchen. com - and thanks to a few rave reviews and helpful hints from reviewers, I decided to give it a go. I changed a few of the original ingredients and amounts(sorry, I'm not putting instant coffee into bread).

Outback Steakhouse Honey Wheat Bushman Bread (Bread Machine)

1/2 cup water
1 cup evaporated milk (or combine liquids to 1 1/2 cups water and add 1/4 cup powdered milk)
1/2 cup honey
1 tablespoon molasses
2 1/4 cup bread flour
2 1/4 cup wheat flour
4 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
1 tablespoon cocoa
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
cornmeal for dusting

Place all ingredients into the bread machine and process on dough setting. I opened it up after a few minutes and scraped down the sides. Let rise for 1 hour (I just let the dough cycle run its course). I then turned the bread machine back on to let it knead for a minute.

Remove from pan and divide into 8 portion. Form portions into tubular shaped loaves. Place on two cookie sheets (I have silicone mats that I use on my cookie sheets). Spray lightly with Pam, then sprinkle cornmeal on loaves. Cover and let rise 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Bake at 350' for 25-30 minutes. Be prepared for some pretty awesome aromas emanating from your oven. Makes 8 small loaves (about the equivalent of 3 dinner rolls each).

Verdict:

Nathan: 8.8 out of 10. A solid B+. "It looks like Artisan bread".
Alex: 8.5.
Danny: 11. Yes, 11.
Steve: 9.5
Me: I'm going with Steve on this one - 9.5. I didn't even have to make honey butter - you could taste the honey in it. The loaves were easy to cut - Danny was able to cut fairly thin slices with a steak knife. Dense texture without being heavy. This is a great, slightly sweet, wheat bread. Next week: I'm going to try and adapt my garlic-herb bread. Mmmm.

Wonder Bread

Okay, okay, it's not "Wonder Bread"...but it wasn't half bad either.

We tried out our wheat grinder last night for FHE - it works just fine - especially with kids turning the handle. I used a recipe from my bread machine cookbook:

Multigrain Bread

(it says it makes a large loaf - but I made 3 small loaves)

1 1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons softened butter
1 1/3 cup bread flour
1 1/3 cup wheat flour
1 cup 7-grain cereal
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 teaspoons yeast

After it had gone through the "dough" cycle on the bread machine I turned it back on to knead again for a few minutes - then divided it into 3 and put into greased (Pam) loaf pans. After it rose for 1 1/2 hours (longer than I planned - I was late getting back from physical therapy) I cooked it at 375' for 30 minutes. We tried it out while it was warm - with honey butter...mmmm.

Verdict (out of 10 with 10 being the best):

Steve: he gave it an 8...after raving about it. I think his lowish score might be a ploy to get me to try it again.
Nathan: 7. It was good.
Alex: 7.5.
Danny: 10. He also gave the honey butter a 10.
Me: I think 7 or 8 would be fair. I found the 7 grain cereal to be a little crunchier than I really wanted - it was a little too coarse. I would like to try this recipe again, but use some 10 grain cereal that I picked up - it has a finer texture. Besides, if 7 grain is good, 10 should be better, right?

Tradition

So, because I can't figure out how to post on my blog anymore, you get this here. I am reminded of The Fiddler on the Roof anytime I do perform a "Tradition". So, here is to you Mom and your Easter Bunny.

Hard Boiled, Scrambled, Over Easy, and Sunny Side Up

Now that we have the eggs hard boiled, what do you do with them?

My kids are going to have egg salad sandwiches and deviled eggs. I thought that it'd be a good cooking lesson. If they make it, they will eat it.

Doilies

What does a box of food coloring have to do with doilies? Among the seminary teachers at my building we refer to any lesson extras (handouts, treats, rewards, etc...) as "doilies". It's a nice reminder to keep it real...but that doesn't mean we don't use them from time to time. The same is true for food storage. It's great to have all the staples, but it makes life more fun in the bunker if we can tart things up a bit at times. Food colors are an example of something pretty unnecessary - but fun. I was nearly out - and since this is what I use to dye Easter eggs I picked some up, plus one extra for storage. That's my food storage doily for the week.

What "doilies" would you put in your bunker?

To My Peeps

I have yet to buy Easter candy to put in baskets. What are your favorite things to put in your baskets?

A Day To Dig In

So, Friday was my day to dig in and accomplish everything before everything got out of hand. I had one final playgroup with 6 rowdy 4-5 yr old boys. I had one birthday party to get through before August. And I one day to prep before a crew of 10 inexperienced elders quorum members descended on our home to help with the siding.
I took Dad's method of make a list and check it off. Playgroup went well. When in doubt, have them build with sugar. We built igloos with big and little marshmallows and I was definately a big hit. Check!
Ana's party included 6 other girls and a movie party. My hubby had his doubts, but was pleasantly surprised that they remained thoroughly entertained and relatively calm for 3 hours. (a small tip: never exceed the 2 1/2 hr party limit) Check!
And fianlly I have learned that you only get to what you can get to. The prep had to wait until 8am on Sat. It did get done and I was able to Check it off my list.

FOOD STORAGE 101

Here's a couple of plans that may be of help to get going on food storage. Yes, I know it's probably more than $5 a week now and is pretty basic. But you can add the items that your family loves and would make it tolerable.

Apologies for the placement format..... again I'm having trouble getting things to go where I want them to go! It's soooo frustrating and I'm sure there are things I'm doing wrong. If you have any clues, let me have it! I tried to place each plan side my side or at least in order! Oh well, hope it helps someone!

Begin Again

After famously admitting that my "food storage" consisted of dented cans of pineapple chunk and french cut green beans I found a good deal of comfort in this Ensign article (read the whole thing here):

President Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–2008) suggested that Church members adopt a simpler approach to home storage.

“We can begin ever so modestly,” President Hinckley explained. “We can begin with a one week’s food supply and gradually build it to a month, and then to three months.”1

Sister Jeffries notes that “the beauty of this system is its appropriateness for families just starting their storage programs, as well as for those living in small homes and apartments, where space is at a premium. President Hinckley clearly recognized that change and adaptation are needed so that all of us might benefit from the Lord’s inspired program.”

Research shows that these common longer-term food storage items, if they are properly packaged and stored at or below room temperature (75 degrees F; 24 degrees C), remain nutritious and edible much longer than previously thought. Even after long-term storage, these foods can help sustain life in an emergency.

Food	Shelf-Life Estimate in Years
Wheat	30+
White Rice	30+
Corn	30+
Pinto Beans	30
Dried Apple Slices	30
Macaroni	30
Rolled Oats	30
Potato Flakes	30
Powdered Milk Debbie has organized me beautifully and pointed out all the places that have room for increase so you'll be hearing about my long-term food storage adventures in the coming months.	20